there is a lot of anti kerry sentiment on the mayo blog going back to limerick, and you can see that literally being played out over there with calls for that fan who invaded the pitch being brought back to sort out referees. Its amazing that posters there can call for that and yet bemoan their players being assaulted. They yearly, monthly, weekly call on their players to be hard men, excuse them when they do it, explain away their players indulging the black arts and cry like babies when it happens to them. Case in point - two posters mentioning ■■■’s forearm smash last year and no replies, also WJ seems to be keen for the thing to be dropped when some other people produce what they call evidence of it being a mistimed shoulder after he personally calling shanahan a thug.

its a good eye opener i hope for those here who claim you cannot say a bad word about our players. Those who criticised Cooper for diving/making the most of it against Kildare would have been banned and their posts deleted under WJ’s regime.

its a good eye opener i hope for those here who claim you cannot say a bad word about our players. Those who criticised Cooper for diving/making the most of it against Kildare would have been banned and their posts deleted under WJ’s regime.

Yup , good call . We should be free to criticize as well as praise when it’s merited .

I’m not going to get into this again . I said my piece last week .Lot of people disagreed with me which is fine . But your way off questioning my support of the team . I put forward my reasons , I said he’s a great player . I would just prefer he let his football do the talking . But if we can’t criticize players & just use this site as a cheer leading exercise it defeats the whole point of discussion .
If you wanna stir this up all again , go for it , I’m out .

they’re still only one kick of a ball behind us after 80 mins of football. That said i dont panic wither, but that is down to my belief in our team, not a lack of belief in anyone else. At half time in the SF against Kerry in 16 I was convinced we were going to win and i was fairly chilled out.

The super 8’s may suit mayo in the same way that the backdoor did for them last year so dont be counting chickens.

That’s why I don’t understand why they don’t use the league to figure out how to close out tight games. We have & its been of tremendous benefit to us in September. Mayo saunter into a lot of their league games, looking like they don’t really give a shit, instead of (wisely) using it as a breeding ground to cultivate a winning, never say die mentality.

I know the usual cliches get trotted out of peaking in September & that the league doesn’t matter. Jim Gavin clearly doesn’t think that & look at all he has won. You’d think at some stage, they’d look at us and cop that.

Even if they (like all counties) are missing loads of players, due to club duty, or Sigerson commitments, or off season surgeries, or whatever, a winning mentality is contagious. You can’t just turn it on and off, at will. They expect to be able to sleep walk through the league & Connaught & just turn on the winning mojo in the final quarter of big games in September. And then they can’t figure out why we keep on running rings around them in the last 10 minutes of big games. We figured out how to do that in Ballybofey, Tralee, Castlebar, Omagh etc etc in February/March. Not in Croke Park in the summer.

well, TBF you can hardly go into a match with the intention if winning it tight, and i believe that a lot of the etched out draws last year were to keep the unbeaten run going with the record in sight more than anything else.

that could also explain why we are a bit livelier in the league this year, that yoke is gone, and the simple plan is to win it again this year and take that form into the summer.

well, TBF you can hardly go into a match with the intention if winning it tight

Do you think Mayo haven’t played out this scenario in training sessions , considering they have been on the receiving end of it so much ?
They’re must be putting the points over in those cases if they are . Which is fine when you don’t have 80k people in your ear .

but how do you replicate it in a training session? proudDub was speaking of how we have become used to pulling proper matches out of the fire by experience. maybe the AvB can be that intense but i dont think Mayo have a squad deep enough where you can replicate that

We won 4 league titles in a row & came very close to winning a 5th. We had perfected the art of closing out tight games, long before we even knew the unbeaten streak existed, never mind become a thing to aim for.

Simulate it like it’s the last 5 or 10 minutes of a game and set the score at whatever you want . I don’t know , something like that . I’m sure they must have some part of sessions set up for that situation .
You’d imagine they’d have one for every eventuality.
Of course it’s not like it’s gonna be in Croker but it can’t hurt either .
Like the way we dismantled the blanket last year . That was probably years in development.

I have to disagree there. I’ve watched the footage and to me it does look unintentional. At the very least I don’t think there’s enough evidence to have the lad hung out in public. Put it this way, what Michael Murphy done to Brian Fenton in 2016, looked far more intentional than what Shanahan done Regan and there was nowhere near the amount of outrage and accusations being thrown out about Murphy.

Its a physical game and injuries will continue to happen. I feel for Regan, I really do. Its very unfortunate for him but that’s all it is, bad luck. I don’t think anyone in the history of the game thought to themselves before taking to the field that there was zero chance I’m going to pick up an injury here.

Some valid pints but as one persons opinion is that Mayo have not quiet been good e Pugh to win Sam, we have very nearly done so on numerous occasions.

It’s actually 2014 in Limerick that rally sticks in my side as he one that got away. Have never watched that game back in full.

If someone says we are not good enough in their opinion, that’s fine but can we be bottlers Alo’s if we have not been good enough.

Look at any news site or journal online and any story about Mayo is usually met with smart comments about not winning an All Ireland. Now I know I said it doesent bothar me but I literally can’t go anywhere in Ireland without someone rambling into a football debate when they find out where I am from.

We are defined fairly or unfairly now as bottlers and no hopers by the rest of the country. Until we win an All Ireland that’s our lot…ah sure feck them we will do it someday…I hope

It’s a bit of eveything @mayoman but unfortunately until you win the charges stand - as we know. Very nearly cuts absolutely no ice. I wouldn’t say bottlers (we were hammered with that stick) but there is certainly an issue around what happens when the real heat comes on in terms of how players and management react. Even in winning over the last number of years we have got plenty of things wrong. But the difference is we won.

Now I know I said it doesent bothar me but I literally can’t go anywhere in Ireland without someone rambling into a football debate when they find out where I am from

Everyone here will tell you pre 2011 that was the exact same anytime any of us went down the country or abroad. As soon as you entered a conversation with someone from outside Dublin they would inevitably ask “so you into the football?” and it wouldn’t be much longer before the word bottlers came up

[quote=“BohemianDub, post:478, topic:2443, full:true”]
I have to disagree there. I’ve watched the footage and to me it does look unintentional. At the very least I don’t think there’s enough evidence to have the lad hung out in public. Put it this way, what Michael Murphy done to Brian Fenton in 2016, looked far more intentional than what Shanahan done Regan and there was nowhere near the amount of outrage and accusations being thrown out about Murphy. [/quote]

Kerry had 3 players see the line that night, including Shanahan. If you aren’t seeing an intent to send a message, I am. You have a duty of care to your fellow players not to run headlong into contact, with zero thought as to where your elbows are. Given Kerry’s overall attitude to the game & that his elbow wound up in Regan’s face & broke his jaw, I’m not all that inclined to give Shanahan the benefit of the doubt.

Would you be so inclined, if it was a Dublin player on the receiving end?